Thursday, February 21, 2008

Finally finished my gobbet…

….lots going on in Alex land. Gobbet is finished and being handed in tomorrow. Tom has been a rock during the writing of this as I've been a nightmare to be around. Kudos and brownies and lots of thanks to you. Thanks to Spanky for proof reading it for me. Thanks to Felicity for all her encouragement whilst I've been trying to write it and thanks to Laura for helping me keep up with the new term's Aramaic.

Lots of knitting going on all over Chaplaincy over the last few days. We're knitting a blanket as a keep sake for Chaplaincy. Lots of people are leaving, so we're all doing a square, and then Ruth will crochet them together. It should look great when its done. Then we're moving on to making teeny tiny clothes for premature babies at the Princess Anne Hospital here in Southampton. Any friends out there who want to get involved, please look up preemie patterns on the net and knit away. Drop the finished items in at the Chaplaincy when you're done. If you can't knit but still want to help, please make a small donation towards yarn and needles. We and the tiny babies would appreciate it.

Here is a very belated picture of the gloves I made Tom for Christmas. I think he likes them. He wears them a lot. That's me by the way.

What else has happened to me then? Well I didn't get the place at UCL. I was quite disappointed. In the last week or so before the interview I had started to let myself believe I might just get the place and it was not very nice to be rejected. Apparently I don't have enough experience in the Museums sector to do the course. Unfortunately I'm now in a bit of a catch 22 situation where it's almost impossible to get an entry level museums job without a MA in Museum Studies and I can't get on the MA course I want without more museums experience. The only way out this cycle is to volunteer a lot. I do have a place at Durham, but I can't take that up as I can't afford to live in halls in a college. So I will be taking 1 -2 years out to work in a soul destroying sales role to save up the £8k I need to do an MA and live, and volunteer at as many museums as possible around the place. I've just applied for a bursary from our careers department for 2k towards career development. I've said in my proposal that I would put the money towards learning to drive and rent. I started to learn to drive before I came to uni, but had to stop when I lost my nerve and ran out of money. Museums around here tend to be off the beaten track a bit, and not accessible by public transport, so a car is a bit of must. As for rent, I currently pay my fees and live off about £9k a year. Take out the fees and that's about 8k. The extra money from the grant would be a nice bit to tide me over while I Iook for work the summer after graduating. There's no loan then!

Oh well… just need to sort out my dissertation now! It'll have to wait till next week for the huge kick start as my little sister is down to stay for the weekend. It's great fun.